Ashtray Blog: An Electronic Cigarette Blog
Uk Budget: Tax Increase on Cigarettes
The Chancellor has once again increased the tax on cigarettes.
The enourmous taxes already suffered by smokers – which pays for the cost of smoking diseases several times over – is obviously not enough for the high spending, money grabbing Labour government.
As a result the tax on cigarettes has increased by 7 pence a packet.
A Tax on the Poor
More poorer people than richer people smoke.
In Scotland, for example, people in the poorest areas are three times more likely to smoke than in more affluent areas.
On average, people in these areas spend a massive 25% of their income on cigarettes.
These are the people, many of whom are living just above the poverty line, who can least afford to pay out an increase in taxes.
Not So Easy to Give Up
It’s easy to say smokers should give up, and smokers often try when taxes rise.
But with only 1.6% of smokers able to give up for more than a year even with the aid of expensive nicotine replacement aids that’s easier said than done.
Some doctors even argue that nicotine is as difficult to give up as heroin and morphine.
Not About Health…
Given that obese people are as likely to die young as smokers, let’s not pretend that this has anything to do with health – if it was, fast food would be taxed as heavily as cigarettes.
This is about an incompetent government grabbing money from an easy target: smokers.
Not Yet Taxed…
E Cigarettes are not yet taxed by the government. In fact its still cheaper to smoke them than cigarettes.
If this government remain in power, though, that’s not likely to be the case for long…
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